Category: Technology News

Digital Gardening and the New Era of Personal Geography

For years, the internet was viewed as a vast, impersonal highway—a place to move through quickly to find specific information. But as our digital maturity grows, we are seeing a shift toward a concept known as “digital gardening.” Instead of merely consuming temporary content, users are looking to cultivate long-term, meaningful spaces. This philosophy is now making its way into how we interact with physical space, leading to a revolution in how we perceive and share our geographic reality.

From Static Data to Living Ecosystems

The traditional map has always been a finished product. You open it, find your location, and close it. It is a one-way communication from a cartographer to a user. However, the rise of social mapping is turning this static relationship on its head. Today, a map can be a “garden”—something that is planted, tended to, and grown over time by a community or an individual.

In this new paradigm, a map is never truly “finished.” It evolves as the neighborhood changes, as new hidden gems are discovered, and as old favorites close down. This dynamic nature reflects the reality of our lives much more accurately than any corporate database could. When we participate in this type of collaborative geography, we aren’t just looking at a screen; we are contributing to a living ecosystem of shared human knowledge.

The Rise of the “Prosumer” Cartographer

The term “prosumer”—someone who both consumes and produces—is perfectly applicable to the modern explorer. We are no longer satisfied with being told where to go by an anonymous algorithm. We want to be the ones highlighting the quietest library to study in, the best park for a sunset picnic, or the specific street corners that hold historical significance to our community.

This democratization of data creates a much richer tapestry of information. Consider the difference between a standard map and one curated by a local historian or a street-food enthusiast. The latter offers layers of “tribal knowledge” that are inaccessible to automated crawlers. By empowering individuals to build their own thematic atlases, we allow for a specialization of knowledge that makes the world feel more intimate and navigable. It’s about quality over quantity, and depth over breadth.

Privacy as the Foundation of Trust

One of the biggest hurdles in the growth of shared digital spaces has been the erosion of trust. When users feel like their movements are being tracked for advertising purposes, they withdraw. This is why the next generation of mapping tools is focusing so heavily on decentralized control and user-led privacy settings.

For digital gardening to flourish, the gardener must own their plot. The shift toward platforms that allow for private, invite-only communities or granular sharing permissions is essential. It allows for the creation of “safe spaces” where a family can map their private history or a professional team can plot sensitive project data without fear of external surveillance. When privacy is guaranteed, the level of detail and authenticity in the maps increases exponentially.

Mapping the Intangible

The most exciting frontier of this movement is the mapping of things that aren’t physically there. We are starting to see maps of sounds (soundscapes), maps of memories, and maps of local legends. These intangible layers of our world are what make a “place” feel like “home.” By using modern tools to anchor these feelings to specific geographic coordinates, we are preserving culture in a way that was never before possible.

As we look to the future, the map will continue to move away from being a mere navigational tool. It will become a canvas for human expression, a tool for community organizing, and a personal archive of a life well-lived. By embracing the principles of curation, privacy, and collaboration, we are not just finding our way—we are defining what the world means to us.

Beyond Capacity: The Strategic Evolution of External Partnerships

For C-level executives, the decision to scale a digital product often hits a familiar wall: the friction of recruitment and the high cost of cultural integration. When a roadmap requires rapid acceleration, simply adding individual contractors to an existing structure often leads to fragmented communication and inconsistent quality. The shift toward a more sophisticated model—one based on integrated, high-performing units—is becoming the preferred strategy for organizations that prioritize velocity without sacrificing architectural integrity.

Engineering Autonomy and Functional Alignment

The true value of an external partnership lies in its ability to function as a self-organizing extension of the core business. Unlike traditional staff augmentation, where internal managers must oversee every micro-task, a more mature approach involves deploying a full-stack unit that brings its own established processes, tools, and internal synergy. This allows the organization to outsource the “how” of development while maintaining strict control over the “what” and “why” of the product vision.

Choosing a Dedicated Development Team ensures that the collective expertise—from frontend and backend engineering to quality assurance and product design—is synchronized from day one. This model eliminates the “storming” phase of team development, as the members are already accustomed to each other’s workflows and standards. For leadership, this translates into a predictable delivery cadence and a significantly reduced management overhead. The focus shifts from supervising individuals to steering a high-output engine that is already tuned for performance.

Mitigating Long-Term Risk Through Collective Ownership

One of the most significant risks in digital product creation is the loss of institutional knowledge when individual contractors rotate off a project. A dedicated unit mitigates this by fostering collective ownership of the codebase and the product logic. Because the team operates as a single entity, the technical insights and strategic context are distributed across the group, ensuring continuity even as the project evolves over several quarters or years.

Furthermore, this model allows for “elastic scaling.” As the product moves from an MVP stage to full-scale market penetration, the team can be adjusted to meet new technical demands without the administrative burden of traditional hiring. This flexibility is vital in a market where the ability to pivot can be the difference between leadership and obsolescence. By investing in a partnership built on transparency and shared goals, executives can ensure that their technical foundations are robust enough to support aggressive growth.

Ultimately, the goal of a strategic technical partnership is to provide more than just code; it is to provide a reliable path to market leadership. By integrating a specialized, battle-tested unit into the organizational fabric, companies can bypass the typical hurdles of scaling and focus entirely on capturing market share. In a landscape defined by rapid technological shifts, having a stable yet agile development partner is the most effective way to ensure that long-term business objectives are met with precision and excellence.

The “Lake Fly” Effect And Why Your Porch Light Is A Magnet in Salt Lake City 

If you live by the Great Salt Lake or the Jordan River, you are likely used to a certain summer visitor. Right as the sun dips behind the mountains, millions of tiny flies start to swarm. Most locals just call them “Lake Flies,” but their official name is actually midges.

Sometimes these clouds of bugs are so thick they look like rising smoke. They do not bite or sting, but they will completely coat your windows and walls in huge numbers. It is definitely a strange, messy part of life here in Northern Utah.

Understanding why this happens can help you reclaim your backyard. When dealing with these local swarms, many residents use resources like saelapest.com to find professional ways to manage seasonal pests around their property. 

Understanding the Swarms Near the Great Salt Lake 

The “Lake Fly” swarm happens because of how the Great Salt Lake works. Midges start their lives as tiny larvae in the lake’s water and mud. Once the weather gets warm, they all hatch at the same time to find a mate.

Since these bugs are not very strong fliers, the wind often blows them right into our neighborhoods. They are naturally built to look for bright or tall objects to gather around. In a dark yard, your house stands out like a giant landmark for them.

Most pests try to get inside your home to find a snack, but midges do not care about your food. They are just following their basic instincts. This cycle is what brings millions of them to your front door every Utah summer. 

Why Your Porch Light Attracts Them 

Many people wonder why these flies skip the dark trees and head straight for a light bulb. Most bugs that come out at night in the Salt Lake Valley use light to find their way. They usually rely on natural things, like the moon, to stay on the right path.

When you flip on a bright porch light, it totally messes up their internal compass. Because your bulb is so much closer and brighter than the moon, the insects get confused. They keep trying to fix their flight path to stay lined up with the light.

This makes them spiral inward until they eventually crash into your light fixture. In a place where we love being outside, one bright bulb can quickly turn a patio into a swirling cloud of bugs. 

Changing Your Lighting to Protect Your Utah Home 

You can reduce the number of bugs on your windows by changing your exterior bulbs. One of the best local strategies is switching to yellow LED “bug lights.” Most insects, including our midges, have trouble seeing yellow and amber wavelengths. 

This simple switch makes your home nearly invisible to the swarm. Another tip for Salt Lake residents is to move light sources away from doors. 

Instead of a bright light right above the door handle, try using path lights further out in the yard. This draws the bugs away from your entryway so you can walk inside without them following you. 

Keeping the Outdoors Enjoyable in Salt Lake City 

Living in this beautiful valley means getting used to the cycles of the Great Salt Lake. While we can not stop the midges from hatching, we can definitely manage our own space. Taking simple steps like cleaning your light fixtures and checking your window screens goes a long way.

These swarms usually do not last very long and are only at their worst during the hottest months. Once you understand why they like light, you can make a few small changes to your home.  That way, you can enjoy our famous Wasatch sunsets without a cloud of uninvited guests buzzing around. 

Get Professional Help 

If you live in Salt Lake City and want a break from these bug swarms, the team at Saela Pest can help. They offer expert advice and professional ways to handle the problem.

The pros there really understand how the Great Salt Lake and our desert climate affect local bugs. They specialize in helping neighbors protect their homes from “Lake Flies” and other common Utah pests. You can check out their website today to see how they keep your home comfortable. They make it easy to stay pest-free all year long, no matter the season. 

How VoIP Phones Work – A Comprehensive Guide

How VoIP Phones Work – A Comprehensive Guide

VoIP phones work on your business’s broadband internet connection and look and operate like traditional landlines. You can use specialized VoIP phones that plug directly into your office’s Ethernet network or standard telephones connected to a VoIP adapter.

Unlike traditional business phones, VoIP devices don’t require copper wiring to connect to the phone network and must be registered online with your service provider.

Worthwhile

Many businesses can save money by switching to VoIP phone systems. Traditional business phones require specialized hardware and wired phone lines that are costly to install, support and upgrade.

VoIP calls travel over your business broadband Internet connection and are transmitted as data packets. Therefore, these call costs are substantially lower than traditional PSTN and ISDN calls.

Furthermore, VoIP providers often offer unlimited calling with a fixed monthly fee. This is because voice data uses less bandwidth than visiting websites or downloading files. This allows organizations to prioritize calls even when the Internet speed is low. Furthermore, VoIP software lets employees connect from mobile devices and desktops for better flexibility, catering to work-from-home arrangements and global teams. A few VoIP providers also allow account settings to be dynamically downloaded on users’ handsets when they login to the system. Read furthermore to VoIP hardware guide you about VoIP systems.

Satisfaction

VoIP phones offer many convenience-enhancing features compared to traditional landlines, such as unlimited calling and online faxing. Moreover, most providers don’t charge any one-time setup fees. This allows businesses to enjoy instant savings when switching to VoIP.

VoIP phone software or hardware solutions convert analog audio signals into digital voice data routed to the customer’s phone via the internet. This process happens almost instantly, which explains why VoIP sound quality is so great.

Besides, users can access the same business phone features on their mobile devices, which gives them more flexibility to work wherever they are without any hassles. They only need a reliable internet connection with less than 70ms ping and 500 kbps upload speed for optimal performance.

Scalability

VoIP phones use the internet to transmit data rather than the traditional phone company’s trunked lines. This saves you a lot of money on the initial setup and monthly costs.

While a business VoIP phone system looks similar to your normal handsets, the internal hardware is quite different. Instead of an RJ-11 phone connector, it has an ethernet plug which allows it to be powered and connected to your business’s network via an internet connection.

If your business relocates, you don’t need to acquire new phone lines like you would with a traditional handset. Instead, you can have your employees switch to using softphones compatible with your existing communication and collaboration tools. This provides greater flexibility and scalability.

Flexibility

VoIP phone systems allow employees to access business calls from any device that can access the internet. This includes computers, mobile phones (using a free VoIP app), office phones, and even tablets and fax machines (with the help of an ATA).

This is possible because VoIP uses your broadband internet connection to send voice data packets across the network. The data travels through a private IP PBX system or on-site hardware to be converted into an analog signal on the PSTN network.

This allows for exceptional scalability as you add more users to the system, which can be done with a few clicks inside the VoIP account dashboard. However, you must remember that your VoIP system will only function if your internet connection is stable and reliable.

Security

One major drawback of VoIP phones is that they depend on technology, and if the internet or electricity fails for any reason, the virtual business phone number will stop working. While hosted services can reduce this risk to some extent, it is still there and should be considered before implementing a virtual business phone system.

Traditional analog phones can be connected with VoIP to an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA). This converts analog signals into digital ones and transmits them over the internet using IP technology.

VoIP apps are also available for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. These softphones require a standard phone app, an internet connection, and the corresponding VoIP software solution. They offer increased mobility for employees as they don’t need to install new phone jacks in the wall and can easily switch between the desk and mobile phones.

Six Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Accounts Payable Software for Your Business

Six Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Accounts Payable Software for Your Business

Do you need help keeping your accounts payable organized? You’re not alone. Keeping track of invoices, payments, and billing cycles can quickly become overwhelming.

Fortunately, accounts payable software is invaluable for streamlining the accounts payable process. In this blog post, we’ll explore six factors to consider when choosing the right accounts payable software for your business.

The Cost of the Software

When considering the cost of accounts payable software for large business, it is important to consider the initial cost and any ongoing costs associated with using the software. Initial costs include purchasing the software, installation fees, and setup costs. In addition, depending on the features you need, additional charges for add-ons or upgrades may exist.

The Features Offered By the Software

When choosing the right accounts payable software for your business, it’s important to consider the features offered by the software. Different software solutions offer different capabilities, and ensuring the software you choose meets your specific needs is important. Some of the features you should look for include the following:

1.   Automated invoice processing

Automated invoice processing saves time and eliminates human error by automatically capturing and processing invoices.

2.   Flexible payment options

Good accounts payable software should offer various payment options to suit your business’s needs.

3.   Online portals

Having an online portal where vendors can log in and view their invoices, see payment status, and receive notifications can help streamline the accounts payable process.

4.   Reporting and analytics

Running reports and gaining insights into your accounts payable process can help you identify areas of improvement and reduce costs.

5.   Security

Security is important when choosing accounts payable software, as you must ensure that all sensitive data is securely stored and protected.

The Ease of Use of the software

When selecting accounts payable software for your business, it is essential to ensure it is user-friendly. The ability to quickly and easily access information about invoices, payments, and other transactions will help save you time and money in the long run.

The Compatibility of the Software with Your Existing Accounting System

Regarding accounts payable software, you want to ensure your selected product is compatible with your existing accounting system. Your accounts payable software should be able to integrate seamlessly with other accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero. Ensure that the accounts payable software is compatible with your current accounting system.

The Customer Support Offered by the Software Company

Choosing the right accounts payable software can be an intimidating task. One of the most important factors to consider is the customer support offered by the software company. Ensure that the company has adequate customer support, which will ensure any issues can be resolved quickly and easily.

The Scalability of the Software

It is important to consider the scalability of the accounts payable software you select. You want to ensure the software can keep up with your business as it grows. This means the software can accommodate an increase in the volume of invoices and payments you process.

Conclusion

Choosing the right accounting software collection can take much work with many software providers. But you can consider the following factors if you’re trying to find online or desktop-based results. These six factors will help you decide.

Facebook platforms back online – as it happened | Technology

 

 

 


20:54

Summary

Now that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are coming back into service, after a dramatic global outage, we’re wrapping up our live coverage of the outage.

But there are still many questions unanswered, about what caused the outage, what effects the service disruption had for the at least 3.5bn people who use Facebook’s apps around the world, and what the consequences of the outage will be as Facebook faces increasing public pressure over its impact on everything from US teens’ body image to the survival of democracies around the world.

Here’s some of the remaining questions:

  • Who’s responsible? Outside security experts said they believed the server problem that caused a six-hour global outage of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp could have only originated from within the company. But Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have offered no public explanation for what exactly went wrong, just a blanket apology for the disruption.
  • Who was hurt? The outage affected potentially tens of millions of users worldwide. Owners of small businesses were also disrupted everywhere from India to Ireland.
  • What does the outage demonstrate about Facebook’s size and influence? “The outage came the same day Facebook asked a federal judge that that a revised antitrust complaint against it by the Federal Trade Commission be dismissed because it faces vigorous competition from other services,” the Associated Press reported, even as the brief disappearance of Facebook showed that “nothing can easily replace the social network that over the past 17 years has effectively evolved into critical infrastructure.”
  • Will the outage have a lasting effect on Facebook’s stock price, and Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth? Bloomberg reported earlier today that the nearly 5{4224f0a76978c4d6828175c7edfc499fc862aa95a2f708cd5006c57745b2aaca} drop in Facebook stock on Monday resulted in a more than $6bn drop in Zuckerberg’s net worth, sliding him down one rung of Bloomberg’s billionaires list.
  • How will lawmakers in the US and other countries respond? Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is slated to testify before the US Senate tomorrow, and is expected to compare Facebook to Big Tobacco, which knew about the deadly effects of its product on users and did nothing. She is also expected to describe how the company’s lack of transparency into how its services actually function makes it virtually impossible for regulators to do their job effectively. The testimony will provide a forum for powerful US politicians to weigh in about the company’s current crises.

Read the Guardian’s full news story on the outage here:

Updated

 

 

 


20:23

Zuckerberg finally posts about the outage: ‘Sorry for the disruption’

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg finally commented on his company’s global outage, in a Facebook post on his restored site.

Zuckerberg offered no explanation for what had happened.

“Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today — I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about,” he posted.

 

 

 


20:16

KrebsOnSecurity reports Facebook outage was ‘a routine update gone wrong.’

Brian Krebs, a longtime computer security expert, wrote earlier today that the changes that caused Facebook’s global outage “had to have come from inside the company” but whether “the changes were made maliciously or by accident is anyone’s guess at this point.”

Krebs’ most recent update cites “a trusted source who spoke with a person on the recovery effort at Facebook” and who was told that “the outage was caused by a routine BGP update gone wrong.”

The source also explained that “The errant update blocked Facebook employees — the majority of whom are working remotely — from reverting the changes,” Krebs reports.

For more on what that means, my colleague Alex Hern’s brilliant tweet thread breaks it down.

 

 

 


20:03

No evidence Facebook outage was malicious or an ‘attack,’ outside experts say

There was no evidence as of Monday afternoon that malicious activity was involved in Facebook’s global outage, the Associated Press reported.

Matthew Prince, CEO of the internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare, tweeted that “nothing we’re seeing related to the Facebook services outage suggests it was an attack”. Prince said the most likely explanation was that Facebook mistakenly knocked itself off the internet during maintenance, the Associated Press reported.

Facebook did not respond to messages for comment from the Associated Press about the attack or the possibility of malicious activity. The company has not commented on the reason for the outage.

Other outside analysts agreed that there was no sign Facebook going down was the result of an outside attack, rather than internal human error.

Oliver Linow
(@OliverLinow)

“We don’t know how or why the outages persist at #Facebook and its other properties, but the changes had to have come from inside the company, ….
Madory said it could be that someone at Facebook just screwed up.”@DougMadory https://t.co/2UYDo2SInq


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


19:48

‘Facebook and its sites had effectively disconnected themselves from the internet’

Trying to understand, on a more precise technical level, what exactly caused a massive global outage of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and who’s responsible?

Employees at Cloudflare, a website security company, wrote up a narrative of how (from their monitoring perspective) the outage went down. There are diagrams.

Cloudflare
(@Cloudflare)

“Facebook can’t be down, can it?”, we thought, for a second. Well it can, and here’s how. https://t.co/V0fW2n0a4I


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


19:36

A brief guide to a world without Facebook

For the people who have spent years monitoring the way disinformation spreads on Facebook, and watching the deadly consequences, living in a world where Facebook was simply not accessible was…quite an experience.

It’s something that Sheera Frenkel, the co-author of An Ugly Truth, a new expose abotu Facebook, highlighted as Facebook came back online.

Sheera Frenkel
(@sheeraf)

Happening now- Facebook is slowly coming back online. Misinfo and disinfo researchers return to their desks. Snow day over.


October 4, 2021

And it’s something that a Guardian’s reporter who covered Facebook for years also highlighted:

Julia Carrie Wong
(@juliacarriew)

I wrote a quick guide to using the internet while Facebook is down. Don’t worry you can still feel bad about your body without Instagram. https://t.co/cb1mzVqzq8


October 4, 2021

 

 

 


19:23

WhatsApp outage: ‘The phones of all your loved ones turned off without warning.’

Facebook has announced that its services are back online, after a roughly six-hour global outage. For people worldwide, journalists noted, it’s WhatsApp being down, more than Facebook itself, which may have caused the most disruption to individual people and families.

Investigative journalist Aura Bogado framed the stakes of the WhatsApp outage:

Aura Bogado
(@aurabogado)

The repercussions of WhatsApp being down in The Rest Of The World are vast and devastating. It’s like the equivalent of your phone and the phones of all of your loved ones being turned off without warning. The app essentially functions as an unregulated utility.


October 4, 2021

Guardian tech reporter Johana Bhuiyan highlighted others chiming in:

Aubrey
(@Aubrrrrey_)

Literally the only way I can talk to my dad and brothers in Mexico 😵‍💫 This is why large companies shouldn’t be allowed to purchase every single company to expand their portfolio!!! https://t.co/ZOY9Qa0O2Q


October 4, 2021

Chicquie
(@Chicquie5)

Little business owners in my African home country heavily rely on Whatsapp and Facebook for their services, I realky hope the issue can be fixed soo for their’s sake. https://t.co/TpD9iyT86i


October 4, 2021

𝗛𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗮
(@KateMarieMaz)

It’s my main source of communication with fiancé in Turkey, it’s heavily used and relied on there https://t.co/kMcPg0vgW6


October 4, 2021

 

 

 


19:14

Facebook’s design makes it impossible to regulate, whistleblower will tell Congress

Facebook’s executives, including Mark Zuckerberg have repeatedly told US lawmakers that they welcome government regulation. Facing scrutiny for their internal policy decisions, they have asked politicians to draw the line on harmful content.

But in her prepared Senate testimony, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen plans to argue that Facebook’s lack of transparency makes it impossible for regulators to meaningfully serve as a check on the powerful global platform.

“This inability to see into the actual systems of Facebook and confirm that Facebook’s systems work like they say is like the department of transportation regulating cars by watching them drive down the highway,” her testimony says, according to Reuters. “Imagine if no regulator could ride in a car, pump up its wheels, crash test a car, or even know that seat belts could exist.”

“Facebook’s closed design means it has no oversight,” Haugen’s testimony says.

And the company’s oversight board, which Facebook created, is “as blind as the public”, the testimony says.

Ceclia Kang, one of the authors of An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination, highlighted another part of this argument:

Cecilia Kang
(@ceciliakang)

On regulation, FB Whistleblower says: “Tweaks to outdated privacy protections or changes to Section 230 will not be sufficient…A critical starting point for effective regulation is transparency: full access to data for research not directed by Facebook” https://t.co/nVs1PXgde4


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


19:04

Reuters: Facebook whistleblower to compare social media company to Big Tobacco

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen will urge the US Congress on Tuesday to regulate the social media giant, which she plans to liken to tobacco companies that for decades denied that smoking damaged health, according to prepared testimony seen by Reuters.

“When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seatbelts, the government took action,” said Haugen’s written testimony to be delivered to a Senate Commerce subcommittee. “I implore you to do the same here.”

Haugen will tell the panel that Facebook executives regularly chose profits over user safety, Reuters reports.

“The company’s leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their immense profits before people. Congressional action is needed,” she will say. “As long as Facebook is operating in the dark, it is accountable to no one. And it will continue to make choices that go against the common good.”

Cecilia Kang
(@ceciliakang)

FB Whistleblower testimony “When we realized tobacco cos. were hiding the harms it caused, the govt took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action…I implore you to do the same here” pic.twitter.com/Oq3OBmkQks


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


18:37

‘We’re sorry.’ Facebook is back online, slowly, for at least some users

After a global outage that lasted six hours, Facebook is back online for many users.

The company confirmed in a tweet that its services “are coming back online now”, and apologized “to the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us”.

Downdetector, a site that monitors outages and had reported millions of user complaints about Facebook being down, said that it was “starting to see reports begin to decline now that Facebook is back up”.

Facebook
(@Facebook)

To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.


October 4, 2021

Facebook began to come back online for American users shortly before 6 pm EST, according to some US journalists monitoring the site.

Oliver Darcy
(@oliverdarcy)

Update: Facebook appears to be back online. The site just loaded for me, albeit very slowly.


October 4, 2021

The outage, which affected Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp worldwide, appeared to be caused by an initial domain name server issue, several news outlets reported, which was then complicated by Facebook’s decision to run nearly every part of its internal operations through its own site.

The company told the New York Times that it expected its site to come back online slowly, and that “it will take some time to stabilize and appear for global users widely”.

Updated

 

 

 


18:30

So what made Facebook go down? Alex Hern explains it all

Confused about what causes Facebook’s global outage? Guardian tech reporter Alex Hern has a brilliantly clear explanation.

The key takeaway: an initial problem was made much more complicated by the fact that “Facebook runs EVERYTHING through Facebook.”

alex hern
(@alexhern)

a bunch of friends have texted me asking for a basic explanation as to what the hell happened to knock off all of Facebook so:


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

Facebook (accidentally, we assume) sent an update to a deep-level routing protocol on the internet that said, basically, “hey we don’t have any servers any more xoxo”


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

Normally, this would be quite easy to fix. you just send another update saying “oh, don’t worry, we have servers, they’re here, xoxo”. Things still break, it takes a while for the message to spread to all corners of the internet, egg on face, but liveable


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

but Facebook runs EVERYTHING through Facebook


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

So when its servers were booted off the internet, it also booted off… the ability to send that follow-up message


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

and the ability to use the smartcard door lock on the front door to the building that contains the servers that control the system that sends the follow-up message


October 4, 2021

alex hern
(@alexhern)

and the messaging service you use to contact the head of physical security to tell them they need to high-tail it to the data centre out east with a physical key to override the smartcard door lock on the front door…


October 4, 2021

The “smartcard door lock” problem Alex is describing is not metaphorical. As the New York Times’ Sheera Frankel explained:

Sheera Frenkel
(@sheeraf)

Was just on phone with someone who works for FB who described employees unable to enter buildings this morning to begin to evaluate extent of outage because their badges weren’t working to access doors.


October 4, 2021

 

 

 


18:20

Facebook outage caused by ‘DNS routing problems’, multiple outlets report

A six-hour global outage of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was caused by a problem with the company’s domain name system, multiple news outlets reported.

Bloomberg
(@business)

The outages at Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram occurred because of a problem in the company’s domain name system, a crucial component of the internet. Here’s what that means https://t.co/7yTLIV4F88


October 4, 2021

Lauren Goode
(@LaurenGoode)

“The fundamental issue…is that Facebook has withdrawn the so-called Border Gateway Protocol route that contains the IP addresses of its DNS nameservers.” The still unresolved question is why those BGP routes disappeared in the first place. via @brbarrett https://t.co/0g6FijjDHa


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


18:11

A ‘cascade’ of costly outages around the world

Billions of users were potentially directly affected by the outages of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp today. But Facebook’s different platforms are also the basis for small businesses around the world, meaning that small stores, restaurants and delivery services across time zones lost money today, the New York Times reported.

In Ireland, it was a clothing business that sells its products via Facebook and Instagram that felt the effects, with one founder telling the New York Times, “Missing out on four or five hours of sales could be the difference between paying the electricity bill or rent for the month.”

“My whole business is down,” the owner of a food delivery service in Delhi told the newspaper.

 

 

 


17:56

Max Benwell

Max Benwell

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp going down can’t be going well over at Facebook HQ, but it’s very different scenes over on Twitter.

Politicians, comedians and even Twitter have taken advantage of the functioning social media site to poke fun at Facebook’s outage and, in some cases, make points about the company’s dominance in the tech market.

Twitter
(@Twitter)

hello literally everyone


October 4, 2021

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(@AOC)

It’s almost as if Facebook’s monopolistic mission to either own, copy, or destroy any competing platform has incredibly destructive effects on free society and democracy 🧐

Remember: WhatsApp wasn’t created by Facebook. It was an independent success. FB got scared & bought it 💬 https://t.co/dGVwza9leR


October 4, 2021

giabuchi (incensed italixn)
(@jaboukie)

facebook and whatsapp down vaccination rates abt to go up


October 4, 2021

 

 

 


17:55

Facebook appears to be back for some users

The social media site is once again loading for some users, including CNN’s Oliver Darcy, and me.

Oliver Darcy
(@oliverdarcy)

Update: Facebook appears to be back online. The site just loaded for me, albeit very slowly.


October 4, 2021

The company told the New York Times it is starting to see the sites coming back online, but they may not be immediately accessible for all global users.

rat king
(@MikeIsaac)

LATEST on Facebook: The company said it is seeing the sites starting to come back online, but it will take some time to stabilize and appear for global users widely.https://t.co/nb06SFdmR3


October 4, 2021

Updated

 

 

 


17:52

Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has dropped by $6bn, Bloomberg reports

The Facebook founder’s personal wealth has shrunk by more than $6bn in just a few hours today, Bloomberg reports, as Facebook stock has dropped in the wake of mysterious global outages of Facebook platforms and a whistleblower’s allegations that Facebook’s internal policies have betrayed democracy and helped facilitate disinformation and ethnic violence.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Mark Zuckerberg’s network as almost $140bn a few weeks ago, but it dropped to only $121.6bn as of early this afternoon, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg CityLab
(@CityLab)

Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has fallen by more than $6 billion in a few hours, knocking him down a notch on the list of the world’s richest people, after a whistleblower came forward and outages took Facebook’s flagship products offline (via @wealth) https://t.co/vrwwLGaYWg


October 4, 2021

 

 

 


17:51

Live coverage: Why is Facebook down around the globe?

This is Lois Beckett, here with live coverage of Facebook’s global outage from our West Coast office in Los Angeles.

We’ll be updating with updates as we have them. Here’s what we know so far:

  • Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp became inaccessible for large numbers of people more than five hours ago, with the the website downdetector.com citing at least 5.6m reports about issues with the company’s services from around the world.
  • The outage has brought down all of Facebook’s apps “globally”, The Verge reported, “affecting billions of users and millions of advertisers”.
  • Within Facebook, even as engineers are being deployed to fix the problem, the outage has disrupted most of the internal systems employees need to communicate with each other and do their jobs, the Verge reported.
  • Facebook’s platforms acknowledged that “some people” were having issues accessing its services, but provided no immediate explanation for the problem. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone tweeted more than five hours ago.
  • The crisis comes as Facebook is already facing intense scrutiny about its policies after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who worked on the company’s civic integrity team, went public with a series of damning allegations, including saying that “the version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world”, and calling the company’s policy choices “a betrayal of democracy”.

We’ll have more soon.

Updated